The Educational Technology Seminar

The VCILT organised a one-day seminar on Educational Technology on the Saturday 14th July 2012. About 40 educators of the primary schools and a few secondary school educators were present to discuss on related issues with respect to the state of affairs in their schools, and also to hear from academia about the latest emerging trends and technologies. 

Presentations related to Open Educational Resources, Educational Cartoons or the use of Creole Language in the development of Interactive Educational Resources were at the heart of very constructive debates. The seminar was supported by Microsoft Indian Ocean and the Microsoft Partners in Learning Initiatives were presented to participants. 

The participants acknowledged the ability of the team from the VCILT to motivate teachers for a full Saturday was something to be praised.  On top of that 50 educators were trained to developed their own interactive learning materials back in March/April 2012, and which were conducted on Saturdays and Sundays. The whole idea behind this capacity-building programme was to decentralize the development of content to the educator's community to enable a sharing culture among peers. Technology is moving at such a pace that the modern technology of today is considered obsolete by tomorrow and we just cannot keep relying on a few persons to develop a whole curriculum. Teachers and students should become co-creators and co-consumers of content. 

We hope to keep the ball rolling and to start forming together a kind of communities of practice who come together once a while to share the latest progress, good practices and know about the latest trends in the educational technology sector. Mr Santally in his opening speech highlighted that in the present age we cannot ignore how technology is affecting us and our environments on a daily basis, and in the wait for the schools without walls reality, we have to keep on our efforts to continuously adapt and modernise our education systems.  

Mr Auckbur from the Ministry of Education highlighted the efforts that are being made at policy level and the management level to equip classes in Mauritius with the technologies of the future. He also highlighted the changes that will soon be brought along this line. The seminar also gave the opportunity to four educators to showcase field realities and their initiatives in terms of the use of technologies in the schools. On the other hand, the interactive whiteboard was at the centre of another interesting debate where educators discussed about the constraints and issues related to its usage/under-use and content related problems that they are facing in the schools. The presentation titled "Interactive whiteboard in schools - a good tool or just another trend?" sparked interest among those present.